Nick Berardino, General manager, Orange County Employees Association: If my valued friends at the Register spent more time investigating questionable behavior by county officials, the paper would have a much better understanding of what outsourcing at the county is really about [“Board opts not to ask voters to OK more contracting of services,” Opinion, July 24].

The county spends many more billions of dollars outsourcing work to private contractors than it pays for county employees – even with their pensions – to provide critical services to the community. Just weeks ago, the grand jury sharply criticized the Board of Supervisors for serious deficiencies in their contracting program. More than $3 billion of the $5.39 billion under the board’s control is spent on contracts with private corporations.

Apparently, the Register has a difficult time connecting the dots. Outsourcing government services is an enormous cottage industry that provides a huge windfall of taxpayer dollars to corporations while at the same time providing politicians with political contributions.

Here is my take on how it works if you want to do business in the county:

Step 1. You hire a lobbyist.

Step 2. The lobbyist assists you in making a political contribution to each member of the Board of Supervisors.

Step 3. The lobbyist uses his or her influence by bundling money from other clients to help you. Your contribution money goes to help his or her other clients in their future requests for corporate handouts in the form of government contracts.

Step 4. The lobbyist often hosts a fundraiser for the board members and invites their other clients to attend and contribute more money to the board member.

Step 5. The lobbyist helps you design your bid to assist you in winning the contract.

Step 6. The lobbyist often attends the meeting at which your contract bid is being voted upon and positions him or herself where the board members can see them from the dais.

Step 7: After you receive the contract at the price you pitched, your lobbyist might appear on your behalf to get you “Change Orders,” which add more money to your contract, add to your profit, make all the money you gave the politicians worth the investments and rip off the taxpayers. Millions of dollars change hands between contributors and county politicians throughout their terms. The politicians use this money to advance their political careers and run for other offices. This contracting cycle has been around forever. Apparently, the only folks to miss it are the editorial staff at the Register.

Media’s Mideast double standard

Corona del Mar, Barry L. Friedberg, M.D.: Why do hundreds of Palestinian deaths merit daily coverage while tens of thousands of Syrian deaths do not? Are Palestinian lives more valuable? Or, perhaps, it is acceptable (or even expected) when Arabs kill other Arabs, but not acceptable when Israelis kills Arabs.

U.S. inaction responsible for MH17 tragedy

La Habra, Ron Meade: Most Americans support the Keystone XL pipeline, realizing that it is integral to American energy independence and, commensurately, lower prices for goods and services, as well as fuel. For President Barack Obama to intentionally keep fuel prices high – with merely the resultant loss of American jobs and businesses – may have darker motives.

Residents of Grabovo, Ukraine look at the site of a crashed Malaysia Airlines passenger plane near Rassypnoye village.(Zurab Dzhavakhadze/ITAR-TASS/ZUMA Wire)

Among the consequence of maintaining higher oil prices are that Saudi Arabia and Russia are reaping hundreds of billions in additional revenue from the sale of oil to the United States. Saudi Arabia uses this money to finance the purchase of weapons for radical groups hostile to Israel, while Russia has used the money to rebuild its military. The missiles used to destroy the Malaysian airliner, killing almost 300 passengers, should be labeled “Made in America.”

Aiding and abetting the criminal actions of other persons or countries could be considered stupidity, timidity or cowardice.

Build water pipeline, not a train

Orange, David Ehrlich: It looks like Gov. Jerry Brown is entering his second childhood. California is dying of thirst. Water is an immediate crisis. Conservation is not the answer – we need more water. Fortunately, there are two good solutions. One is desalination. The other is a pipeline to pump water from areas such as the Mississippi river when it floods.

We have oil pipelines, why not a water pipeline?

We could use this resource to fill our reservoirs, replenish our water table and help to restore the state of California. It is time for Gov. Brown to put his toy train set away and divert all that money to where it is really needed – water!

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